Topics - tiptoe

I too, did not get an lsat score reflective of my practice exams and was pretty bummed out... It was actually six points lower, then I spoke to someone and they helped put it in perspective.

First, February exams tend to more difficult, for one, alot of law schools and the Lsac are aware that February is the month for a lot of retakers who are not satisified with their October and December scores. Retaking the LSAT in February gives you an unfair advantage because you had received experience under real testing conditions. You can't get anymore simulated than that. Therefore, if you thought taking February's exam is going to dramatically improve your previous score based on simulated practice exams, you are mistaken because the actual exam is harder. There is a reason that the February tests are undisclosed, so people can not practice on harder exams.

Second, do not focus on your actual numerical score, focus on your overall ranking percentile. On one exam, i.e. the ranking percentile of a 160 may be equivalent to another exam in which the correlating score is a 165. That is what the schools look at to keep the actual numerical value of the score in it's proper perspective.

Third, if you look at LSN, you will sometimes see two people with an identical GPA, and LSAT score, one gets in, one doesn't, this is also assuming that the soft factors are equal. What matters is where that GPA came from, what was your ranking at your institution, is your undergrad competitive or did half the school graduate with a 3.5 gpa? In addition, they look at when you took the LSAT and what your overall ranking percentage was when you took that test. June tests seem to be not as difficult as February's.

For example: You may see a person with a 168 who actually ranked in the 95th percentile get in and see another person who got 168 based on another test and ranked in the 90th percentile not get in.

Once again, this was a brutal test, and I would not focus on the numerical value of the LSAT score but on your overall ranking percentile. So in other words your 160 February, may actually be equivalant to a 165 in June.

I hope this keeps it all in perspective, so do not beat yourself up, and good luck to all in the application process.

Okay, some weird update has just happened on my account at LSAC. I have app's pending and under letters/report where it indicates for each school what report has been sent, it states 1rst time report and then underneath, there has been a new row recently added that states, "SCORE", but there is no score or date next to it. I have never seen this before, anyone else in the same boat? I am wondering if LSAC is sending my score to the schools with my pending app's before they even notify me!!!!!